The use of finer and finer abrasive powders for polishing a surface has been known for a long time. The first mirrors were made in this way on easily-polished metal surfaces such as copper, for example. However, the purpose of such "mirror quality" polishing is for the polishing abrasive or tool used to leave no marks that are visible to the naked eye.
Conversely, it is also known that a surface may be polished less thoroughly by deliberately leaving polish marks thereon, either to hide a surface state or a geometrical state which is not entirely satisfactory, or else simply as a technical method for achieving a decorative pattern.
The invention lies in the technical field that may be referred to as the field of polishing to leave visible marks. In the past, polishing of this type has been classified in two different categories:
the category of polishing to leave parallel rectilinear marks all extending in the same direction over an entire polished surface; and
the category of polishing to leave circular marks in the form of numerous partially overlapping circles that together cover the entire polished surface.
The main object of the invention is to provide a method of polishing that leaves visible marks on a surface on which determined polished zones of arbitrary size and configuration appear, with said zones being immediately adjacent to one another, and in which the visible marks have at least one general determined direction in each zone but have general directions which are clearly different between adjacent zones, said zones either having no visible separating margins between them, or else having a visible separating margin of predetermined width between adjacent zones.
The invention also extends to any surface which is polished with visible polishing marks and on which there exists zones that have been polished in different general directions without there being perceptible separating margins between adjacent zones.